january i, 1885.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



557 



The Tonga Plant. — Of this celebrated plant Mr. Win. 

 Ball says: — " A remarkable Arad introduced from the South 

 Sea Islands; it has large shining dark green elliptic-oblong 

 pinnatisect leaves, more or less oblique, and having numerous 

 pellucid spots scattered along the region of the midrib. 

 When the plants are small and young, the leaves are 

 entire, but gradually develop, until they finally become 

 pinuatisect. The large inflorescence resembles that of Mon- 

 stera deliciosa. From this bold and ornamental stove Arad, 

 a very valuable and important drug is prepared, known as 

 'Tonga, the specific for neuralgia.'" — Gardeners? Monthly. 



Rules in Pruning. — In a prize essay on the philosophy 

 of pruning, J. F. Wilhite, Boone county, Mo., gives the 

 following rules in pruning: — 1st — Always leave an inch of 

 wood beyond their terminal bud, and let the cut be on 

 the opposite side from the bud. 2nd — Always cut upward 

 and in a sloping direction. 3rd— Prune so as to make 

 but few wounds, and cut the surface as smooth as possi- 

 ble. 4th — In cutting out an old branch prune even to 

 the stem, that the wounds may heal over quickly. 5th — 

 Prune so as to obtain the quantity of fruit desired from 

 the smallest number of shoots. — Florida Dispatch. 



The Use of Hot Water to destroy insects appears to be 

 quite as effectual for the destruction of subterranean 

 enemies as those on the foliage. At the last meeting of the 

 Indiana Horticultural Society, in December, an extensive 

 amateur fruit grower spoke of having used hot water — 

 pouriug a quart about the root of each tree — for the borer, 

 which of course was done in early spring while the trees 

 were yet dormant. In this manner he went over his young 

 peach orchard of several thousand trees; and while the 

 trees had previously suffered badly from the borer, he never 

 saw signs of them afterward. — Planter and Farmer. 



Cranberries. — Wisconsin is the leading cranberry State. 

 Michigan is the second. The average yield of a marsh is 

 150 to 200 bushels to the acre. The picking season lasts 

 two weeks, and three bushels is a good day's work. Seventy- 

 five cents per bushel is the picker's pay. The Wisconsin 

 crop is nearly all shipped to Chicago commission houses, 

 at S2 75 to S3 per bushel. A well-managed marsh con- 

 taining 400 acres of vines will yield about $50,000, and 

 with a very large crop the sum can be nearly doubled. 

 The entire crop of the United States is consumed at home. 

 Englishmen don't take kindly to the fruit, and a ship load 

 sent to London a few years ago could be sold for the cost 

 of carrying. — American Grocer. 



Extracts of Tea and Coffee as Substitutes fok- I lo< A 

 and Guarana. — Dr. Squibb, in the Ephemeris, quoted by 

 the Detroit Lancet, gives in detail the reasons why he has 

 sought to bring to the notice of the profession the extracts 

 of tea aud coffee as substitutes for the extracts of coca 

 and guarana. Briefly, he found by observation and ex- 

 periment, that there was but little of good coca and 

 guarana to be found iu the market. The price asked for 

 the poor article was very large. As a result, the profession 

 has been asking the people to buy poor inefficient drugs 

 at a high price. The results have been very unsatisfactory, 

 both to scientific physicians and to patients. To obtain 

 a real substitute for these drugs. Dr. Squibb has taken 

 the trouble to make careful physiological tests. All of 

 these drugs contain caffeine, or an alkaloid having an 

 analogous action. Apparently most of their virtues depend 

 upon this alkaloid. Hence he took as a standard a dose of 

 caffeine which would always, under definite conditions, 

 produce a given effect. Then he took such doses of each 

 drug as were needed to produce the same effect as the 

 standard doses of caffeine. In this manner, he has as- 

 certained that three grains of caffeine are equivalent to 

 180 grains of coca, to 70 grains of tea, to 60 grains of 

 guarana, to 150 grains of coffee. The details given as to 

 the process by which the extracts of tea and coffee are 

 made is such as to gain the confidence of all who investigate 

 it. The differences between the effects of caffeine aud 

 the extracts of green coffee, tea, coca, or guarana, are 

 difficult to describe. In general terms, it may be said that 

 each of these is caffeine and something more. The effect 

 seemed boarder, more comprehensive, more agreeable, and 

 giving a bet tor sense of rest and well-being. \Ve shall await 

 with interest the result of a wider clinical experience in 

 the use of these agents. — British Medical Journal. 



Liquid Manure. — Labor is too dear in this country to 

 profitably use liquid manures. If the soil is kept well fertil- 

 ized, frequent cultivation will supply crops with moisture 

 more cheaply than it can be drawn on the land and dis- 

 tributed.— Southern Planter. 



Meai.t Bug. — A paint made of gas tar and clay, used 

 with a brush over the stems of grape vines before the 

 leaves push out, is found by hothouse grape-growers in 

 England a sure remedy against mealy bug. — Gardeners' 

 Monthly. 



Rice in Queensland. — A Chinaman living near Cairns 

 has harvested a crop of excellent rice, of which he ha 

 about a ton and-a-half per acre. At the present rutins 

 prices that will pay handsomely. — Planter and Farmer. g 

 A Linseed Factory has just been started in Canterbury, 

 New Zealand, with a capital of £3,800. It is proposed 

 to make oil, cake, and rope and twine. The object is to 

 encourage the growtn of other crops than wheat, which 

 threatens to become too cheap to pay. — Ibid. 



Extent or Land in Fruit. — Few people have any idea 

 of the enormous extent of land under fruit culture in the 

 United States. A correspondent from Barnesville, Ohio, 

 tells us that about 6,000 bushels of Raspberries were sent 

 from that station last season, and, as we suppose, seventy- 

 five bushels to the acre would be a good crop, this gives 

 about eighty acres. It seems almost incredible, but sup- 

 pose it must be so. — Gardeners 1 Monthly. 



Soil Analysis. — Not so much is said row as formerly 

 about the advantage of analyzing soil to learn what fertil- 

 izers are needed. It is a very uncertain and unpractical 

 method of finding soil deficiencies. If crops are poor in 

 favorable seasons it is evideut that some element of plant 

 food is deficient. The lack is more likely to be phosphoric 

 acid than anything else. Try that. Then if it does not 

 produce the desired result, add nitrogen and potash. These 

 will invariably bring a crop if applied in large enough 

 quantity, however barren the soil. — Southern Planter. 



The Hydrangea as a Tea Plant. — The Gardeners' Chron- 

 icle says that a Japanese shrub, Hydrangea Thunbergia of 

 Siebold, and called by the Japanese Amatsji, or " Tea of 

 Heaven," is found on the mountains of Aiva and Souaki, 

 where the leaves, which are oblong and serrate, are, when 

 dried, used by the natives as tea. under the name referred 

 to above, and by the < 'hinese as " Di-sido-san." It is some- 

 times known as "Sweet Tea " by the Japanese, who assert 

 that there is a variety of the same plant with bitter leaves, 

 which they call " Kakassoo." — Gardeners- Monthly. 



Fibres. — Iu the course of a comprehensive treatise on 

 "Fibi e Culture in Southern India," Mr. AV. J. Kemp draws 

 particular attention to the collection of the crop, which may 

 be regarded as the most important item in the whole system 

 of fibre culture. Mr. Kemp writes: — "This is a subject requir- 

 ing unremitting attention in order to secure, as near as 

 possible, a uniform bulk of fibre suitable for marketable 

 purposes; the stems suitable for harvesting must be care- 

 fully picked out and selected from amongst the green and 

 partially developed ones, aud, although it is a difficult matter 

 to draw a hard-and-fast line as to when the stems are ripe 

 enough to be cut, it may be taken for granted that the 

 most suitable time is when the full-grown stums commence 

 to appear yellow from the base upwards, thus denoting a 

 ripened appearance approaching maturity which will be 

 found the best time to harvest the stems. Well-grown 

 stems of rhea should have but few or no lateral shoots, 

 as should lateral shoots prevail they can only be consi 

 as signs of slow growth and inferiority as regards quality 

 of fibre. The stems should be cut as c possible 



to the crown of the plant, aud after being carefudy trimmed 

 of any shoots or limbs, should be Tied in conveniently-sized 

 bundles in readiness to be carried to the 6 ire cleaning 

 machine, and for the purpose of carrying, young boys or 

 women will prove the most economical. Should the estate, 

 however, be of large extent, and wellroaded, small pack- 

 bullocks would be found useful for purposes of carriage 

 on account of the greater number of bundles they could 

 transport to the machine at the same time. In order to 

 prevent as much as possible the after expense of sorting 

 and sizing the various lengths of fibre, it will be found 

 very desirable that the stems should be tied in bundles 

 according to their different lengths at the time they are 

 gathered, and decorticated accordingly.'" — Indian Agri* 

 ctdturist, 



